


aroace five (0.05)

by wren_writes_things



Series: The Umbrella A-spectrum [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, Asexual Number Five | The Boy, Coming Out, F/M, LGBTQ Character, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Season/Series 01, asexual author asexual character, cannot believe i have to specify that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-21
Updated: 2020-11-21
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:47:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27652946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wren_writes_things/pseuds/wren_writes_things
Summary: Five is technically the oldest of the siblings, yet he's the only one who has never been in any sort of relationship. (Even Luther had whatever the fuck was going on between him and Allison, thankfully only when they were kids.) But the thing is, he doesn't /want/ it. He knows for a fact he's more mature than the others, that he's lived long enough to be at an age where he should crave romance and all that.He had Dolores, but it was never anything more than a man in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and the first human-resembling thing he could develop a closeness to. It was not a relationship in the sense of romantic or sexual, not really. And he's never shown interest in men, women or non-binary people. So he's more than slightly confused when Klaus sits him down for a chat about relationships, of all things.I don't own anything, especially not like Tumblr or Wiki, and dont claim to, everything belongs to the actual owners, you know the drill.
Relationships: Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: The Umbrella A-spectrum [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2019788
Comments: 5
Kudos: 86





	1. *a* realisation

**Author's Note:**

> I mean he's an adult (or 'was' for years and years) who doesn't ever have any relationships non-plationically except for Dolores maybe, and I've seen this HC before so yeah, idk, I just feel like writing it for this correction. Aroace rep is ridiculously hard to come by, so we have to make some of our own.
> 
> the title is a bad pun bc *a*-spec realision, a realisation. hah. at least i make myself laugh.

"You know what being gay is, right?"

Five starts. He usually does not get snuck-up on, but of course it would be Klaus to scare the shit out of him while he's making a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich alone in the kitchen. And he almost thought he could get a peaceful lunch in this house. Of course not.

"Yes, Klaus, I know what being gay is. Why? Is this you coming out? You're not very good at it."

"Who, me? No. That's for another time. It's your coming out, actually. Not that I'll push you to say anything now... I genuinely want to give information, I don't mean to pressure you-"

Five just stares at him. "I'm not gay."

"I know you're not. But I'm not asking if you're gay, I'm asking what you know about sexuality and romantic orientation labels."

Five blinks, drops the butter knife and resigns himself to the fact he isn't going to actually eat lunch anytime soon. "How do you mean?"

"You know what bi is, right?"

"Men and women. Sure."

"Well, no, it's attraction to multiple genders. You've heard us say non-binary, yeah? There's more genders than just men and women."

"Okay, yeah, I have heard that. It makes sense to me. But I'm still not following your line of questioning."

"Well there's also pan - that's me - which means I'm attracted to all genders. There's also trans, but you already knew that since Diego has been out as a trans guy since we were kids. Besides, it's not a sexuality, I'm just giving you a little LGBTQ+ terms lesson now."

"Hurry up, Number Four. I want to _eat_."

Klaus pretends to be hurt, putting a hand to his heart. But he continues. "I'm just not _sure_ that you know what asexuality is, for example."

Five had to admit he didn't know that one, actually. "Why? What is it?"

"It's when you don't experience sexual attraction. And here's another; aromantic means you don't experience romantic attraction."

Five's heart is pounding, something that doesn't happen to the calm and collected assassin terribly often. Not that he's going to admit it. "And you're telling me this... why?"

Klaus shrugs, picking up a marshmallow on the counter. "Food for thought." 

Five hears him dramatically stage-whisper, "search up what a QPR is," on his way out of the kitchen. He has to admit, this is food for thought. He doesn't have the time now though since he is interrupted about two minutes later by various siblings until the lunch time is very much over.

•••

The public library has good enough computers that Hazel and Cha-Cha can't track, and he has a couple hours free. So he figures he can ask the internet what that 'Q.P.R.' or 'kupeeare' or whatever thing that Klaus mentioned was. Research is always good, right? Research is part of the job.

Once he filters out 'Queens Park Rangers' and adds the word 'aromantic' since he also heard that from Klaus, it comes up for 'queer-platonic relationship' and 'quasi-platonic relationship'. There's various blog posts from accounts on a website called Tumblr, plus long entries in a database for something called the 'Aromantics Wiki'. He quickly becomes engrossed in the information, taking mental notes of terms. 

When he's finished, Five knows two things; his pretend 'relationship' with Dolores was based on this QPR business rather than any other type, and he needs to do a lot more research. Actually, a third - he needs to talk to Klaus. Unfortunately.

He has some time to kill that night, and absolutely no remorse for waking Klaus up. 

"Five, brother, it's incredibly late - nay, it's actually _early_ now, it's morning - and I cannot imagine what use you have for me at this hour. Let alone any other hour, actually."

"So I did the research you suggested," Five coughed, realising how formal he sounded. "And it made sense."

Klaus' eyes widened. "It did?"

"It did. Mainly I figured out that Vanya is very obviously asexual, but also... I was thinking about me and Dolores."

"Dolores would be...?"

"It- doesn't matter. But basically, an old relationship. And, I believe now, a... QPR."

"Ah, very interesting. Any other revelations?"

"You might be correct. I might be coming out." His heart shouldn't beat this fast, drop like that, when he knows Klaus will be accepting. But yeah, this is what coming out is. This is what he read countless articles on just hours ago. 

"That's okay. That's good. I'm happy for you." Klaus said, his words strangely comforting to Five. "Though you may want to add what you're coming out _as_ , in future instances like this."

"Oh, right," He shook his head, but Klaus just snorted. "I think I might be aroace. Or, I know I am."

"That's good." Five smiled at his brother, who quickly lost the moment to being too proud of himself. "Hey, aren't you glad I'm right all the time?"

Five rolled his eyes and started leaving.

"Some of the time? Twice? Just once?" Klaus called out.

"I'll accept once." Five said just loud enough for him to hear while he's already in the hallway.

"And I'll accept this as a very poorly made thank-you!"


	2. *a* coming out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a few mismatched aroace coming out events, to vanya, allison, diego and eventually luther.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i mostly used the aromantic wiki to look this situation up, i am ace but not aro so i am not the expert on this!! please keep this in mind when reading. i appreciate feedback though!
> 
> my main on tumblr is @wren-cant-happy and my ace blog is @acejupiter , feel free to message or send me asks if you want to discuss this or anything else!

He starts with Vanya.

Number Seven has always been close to him, at least until the years in the apocalypse, and if anyone would understand, it would be her. Or apparently Klaus, but he already knows. Plus, he has a suspicion that Vanya is asexual too, not that he would pry. Not to her face, at least.

They are sitting in the academy again, silently having their respective lunches, as he's been getting his sandwiches mainly from here. Sadly, nowhere else sells peanut butter and marshmallow that he can find. Idiots.

He brings the subject up as subtly as possible. Which is not all that subtle, since he's Five. "I was reading up on things in the library yesterday."

Vanya looks up, apparently lost in her own world til now. "Yeah? It's a nice library."

"It's kind of shit, actually. I guess I'm used to slightly more sophisticated technology and databases." Vanya frowns at this, but he doesn't bother to explain. "I came across some good sources. I think... the world is more open-minded since I was last in this time period."

Vanya ignores the phrasing since she has come to accept that she will not get more out of Five than he wants to give. "That checks out."

His pulse is racing again, an unfamiliar feeling. Vanya is more perceptive than he remembers her to be, though, and looks him up and down in one swift motion. "Five. Did you have a specific something in mind? That you want to tell me? It's okay if you do."

"I- I do, actually. Seven," he adds, choosing the comfort of formality, "I... came across some information on LGBTQ+ identities. Four actually informed me about this subject."

Vanya gives no indication that she feels anything in particular. In fact, she looks as though she's sleeping with her eyes open until she finally says, "That's nice of Klaus," to fill the sudden silence.

Five tries to relax. "And I found many new terms that I had never heard."

"That's good. It's good to stay informed and learn about the world." She looks at his eyes and must sense some fear remaining, as she follows up with, "or about yourself."

"I did learn a lot. Even-even about myself."

"Okay."

"I found out what asexual and aromantic mean." He paused. "Do you know what they mean?"

"Not experiencing attraction, sexual and then romantic. I know, I've heard of them. They're terms for sexuality and romantic identity." She watched him breathe out with some relief.

"I think they fit me. Both of them. I mean... I'm saying I'm aroace." He waited, and though he knew she seemed to understand, he felt his stomach drop anyway.

Vanya smiled broadly. "That's amazing, Five. I'm glad you figured that out."

He winced as she rushed to hug him, making a quiet _oof_ sound as she knocked the breath out of him. He didn't mind the hug, however. This kind of physical affection was something he missed during the years away from his siblings, even if he wouldn't admit it. He lightly patted her back. It felt... nice. Nice to be accepted. Nice to know who he was.

•••

While there wasn't all that much time in between preventing the apocalypse and dealing with his siblings' infinite problems - none of them would survive adulthood without a reasonable voice - Five did make time to talk to Allison and Diego.

There'd been another argument or other, but he cornered them as they left the living room. "Two, Three. Can we discuss?"

"Yes. I very much think we need to-" but he cut Allison off.

"Not about - strategies or family things or whatever, I wasn't totally listening to be honest." Diego opened his mouth to interject, but Five just silenced him with the promise that he'd take their sides in whatever this minor problem was. They both accepted that somehow, and Five was mostly just impressed that they were on the same side of an issue.

There was no point in being shy or subtle again, and he was getting pretty bored of it. So he started and kind of ended the conversation with, "Alright. I'm aromantic and asexual. Do with that what you will."

Yet his heart rate did strangely quicken as he turned to walk away, until Allison stopped him.

"You're not leaving that quickly, Five."

"What?"

Allison shook her head, but still with a smile on her face. "We _support_ you, that's what. Maybe even - shocker - care about you? Since you're our brother?" 

"Actually I wouldn't say I care about you. You're annoying. But aroace, that's good. That's cool." Diego added. Allison elbowed him and he feigned surprise. "What?"

"You looked nervous to tell us." She said, turning back to Five.

"Did I? I don't really care what you think."

"Sure. Well, I thought you might care to know that we love you, Five."

"Well, you're an asshole sometimes, and only really an average brother - " Diego said, earning another sharp look from Allison. " - but to be fair that's pretty good by Hargreeves standards."

"Thanks, I think."

"Any time."

"And you can talk to us any time." Allison said, and with a quick look back at Diego, sighed. "You can talk to _me_ any time. Diego's, I don't know, fighting crime with his girlfriend or something. But the normal siblings are free."

"Allison, I don't think any of us are particularly normal. Not what others would define as normal, at least." Five said.

"No. We're not. But maybe that's for the best." 

•••

It was a little harder to tell Luther. For whatever reason, Five didn't think he was homophobic or cruel, but that he just might not know what aromantic or asexual even meant. He'd lived on the goddamn moon for a while. And he didn't have the free time to search things up, what with being so obsessed with missions and their recently deceased father. If Five didn't know before Klaus had mentioned this stuff, One probably didn't either.

It was once again not exceedingly easy to find a moment to chat with Luther about sexuality when they were all going to die. Probably, at least.

He found a moment when only he, Luther and Allison were around, which was good enough. They were in a car, and Five waited for Luther to put on his seatbelt and start driving before he began.

"Luther, I gotta tell you something." He said, eyes firmly on the road instead of his brother.

"We're going to die, I know."

"No, not that. You already know _that_ ," He said, which made Luther grimace. "Something actually news to you."

"That I'm annoying or something."

"I think it's better if _I_ do the talking."

Luther nodded.

"Do you know what asexual means?"

Luther scrunched up his face in thought. "No?"

"It's when someone doesn't experience sexual attraction. Not to men or women or anyone else." Allison offered from the backseat. She gave Five a thumbs up, which The Boy shook his head at, unimpressed.

"It does mean that, yes. Do you know what aromantic is?"

"Still no, but I think I get the gist."

"Well, it's when someone doesn't experience romantic attraction. There can be a different, some people are gay for their romantic identity, but also asexual. Split attraction."

"Split attraction. Okay. What does that have to do with...?"

"I'm that. Aromantic. and Asexual. I'm that." Five watched Allison again give an overly supportive smile in the rearview mirror. 

"Okay. So you don't experience, like, any attraction."

That's when Five started feeling defensive. "I mean I still have friends. Or want friends. I still have relationships in a non-romantic way."

"Alright."

"It's not like I don't- feel anything."

Luther took a glance at his brother and realised he'd upset him. Despite his tough walls, Five could be hurt. "Oh, Five. I know that. Don't worry, I know that. It doesn't matter to me."

"It doesn't matter."

"I just want you to be happy. If you're happy, that's fine. Being- a-romantic and a-sexual." He pronounced them like the "ay" sounds was separate.

"I am happy about this."

"And we like you all the same." Allison chimed in.

"Yes, that," Luther said. "This seems good for you. And that's good. I'm just not good with words."

"I can tell." 

"Yeah, I know, but I'm glad for you. I need to learn some things, I think, but I'm definitely glad for you."

"Thanks, Number One."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> its a rather short chapter but it's multichapter and written all on the one day so dont hate me pls. there will be more a-spec headcanons to come, and the ones for vanya have started in a separate part of the series.
> 
> lol so i think next chapter will be the last but he will 'come out' to dolores. i respect dolores though, like c'mon imagine you're stuck in the apocalypse ALONE, he is allowed to have emotional support even if it's just a way of him projecting his own thoughts outwards.
> 
> i just dont think dolores will........ have much to..... say..... about his coming out.............


	3. *a* relationship

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Five coming out to Dolores. She doesn't have much to say on the matter, but she probably accepts him, as much as a mannequin can. It's the sentiment that counts.
> 
> don't worry, only the first bit is vaguely serious, the rest is just....... he's talking to a mannequin. he knows he's talking to a mannequin. he knows this is weird. i know this is weird. but its kinda funny and to be fair he really does depend on dolores so. of course he would come out to her. its second nature fo him to talk to her like a human, anyway.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last part of this one, but I'm writing various ace-spectrum and aro-spectrum fics for each sibling. 
> 
> feel free to talk to me on @acejupiter (ace blog) or @wren-cant-happy (main) on tumblr, especially if you have headcanons about the other siblings! I have some ideas but feedback is very helpful. I'm also ace but not aro, so my experiences aren't universal, and information from others is always appreciated.
> 
> NOTE: all the talking is from Five, obviously, and while there's sometimes gaps, that's only to mark that Dolores is replying in Five's mind, not that anyone besides Five is speaking. I've tried to make that as obvious as possible.

It has always been just Five and Dolores against the world. The lack of a world, really, considering their relationship began and ended in an apocalypse. Nothing has ever been easy for them. So it makes sense that Five would add a coming out on top of all their little struggles, only hoping she would accept him.

Sure, Dolores wouldn't have all that much to, er, _say_ about the matter. Five might have the pretense that Dolores was a genuine human sometimes but - especially since coming back to a time with his siblings and lots of other people - he knew that the mannequin was a mannequin. That didn't mean that she wasn't also _more_ than a mannequin. Dolores was a symbol of his perseverance sometimes, and other times she was simply a comfort to have around. He'd looked for her in the present day, the year 2019, for that exact reason. She brought him comfort like no one else could, having been alone besides her for so many years. She was familiar. She was old, in the face of everything new.

Most importantly though, she was something he had occasionally become dependent to live on. He had been - or... will be... time is strange like that - a kid, a boy, The Boy technically, alone in a wasteland surrounded by the ruins of his home and the bodies of his siblings. He hadn't known if he would ever get back.

But he always knew that Dolores depended on him for survival, too.

She could not 'live' without him. No one else would tell her story. No one else knew what she was to him, and she could never tell anyone herself. It was just Five who could explain that she was more than a mannequin, more than just an item to him. If he died, her 'existence', her truth - it ceased with him.

In the worst times, that got Five out of being reckless. Out of losing control.

•••

"Dolores. I have something to talk to you about."

Obviously, she made no indication that she heard him. Still, he knew how she felt. He always did.

"No - no, it's nothing bad, don't worry. It's just some realisations of mine. I recently discovered some terms that have become more widely known in this time period - which I guess you may heave heard already, considering you came from this era. The words are... aromantic, and asexual. Do you know what those are?"

[...]

"Good. Yes. I'm glad you can appreciate them as important identities, because... they've recently come quite important to me. I think - I think they fit me."

[...]

"Yeah, I think it's a nice self-discovery too. It's really - it's really made me feel better about myself. Who I am. Everything like that... It's not easy being a man stuck in my younger body and being around my annoying siblings all the time. But this has been good for me I think."

[...]

"Of course our relationship is still - it's just a little different. Well. Not really. Now we just have a name for this. QPR."

[...]

"I think it's a nice name too. I'm glad you're supportive."

[...]

"Thanks, Dolores. I really needed that."

•••

Standing in the doorway, Allison and Diego just stare at the scene in front of them. Their brother is talking to a mannequin. That's like, the fifth weirdest thing to happen today, though, so they simply don't question it.

"It's... kinda sweet?" Allison attempts.

"No. It's fucked up. That's really fucking strange. It's literally a mannequin, Allison," Diego answers. "But he needs this, so I'm gonna leave him to it."

"Aww, you can be such a nice big brother."

"I'm not - Look, we are never going to talk about this again."

"I'm definitely going to talk about this again. This is hilarious."

Diego knocks against her shoulder as he walks out of the room, and Allison covers her laugh with her hand. She's sort of thankful that Five is too engrossed in the extremely one-sided conversation with what appears to be a battered, bald mannequin that he's calling Dolores, to actually notice his siblings confusion. And Allison has actually chosen to ignore that he's in a QPR, a real true human relationship, with this 'Dolores'. The mannequin looks like something out of a zombie movie.

It _is_ kinda sweet, though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SLKJDLKJDKLJLKDLK okayyyy 
> 
> even though i tried to make it like a coming out. and the starts kinda genuine,, my god the rest was really quite funny to write, maybe its less funny to read, but putting in the '[...]' made me have to cover *my* mouth because it's just. an incredibly weird looking fic ajdajrdlk
> 
> look its sweet that he depends on her okay? and i just think he'd have to talk to her about these things.
> 
> anyway, for more serious a-spec umbrella academy writing, the rest of the series contains a couple chapters already about vanya being asexual, and theres an a-spec headcanon for each of the hargreeves siblings in the making! each one will have their own fic, though it might take a while to finish, so i hope you enjoyed this.
> 
> my blogs are listed at the top of the page (beginning notes) if you want to contact me or tell me what you want to see :)

**Author's Note:**

> so he can come out to others in future chapter/s, im ace but not aro so its not really my personal experience so if you have feedback its much appreciated. this is part of a series, but its not even nearly done, and ive done some of five and some of vanya so far. each character is gonna have an a-spec headcanon of some sorts, to be revealed as the series continues.
> 
> this has absolutely no editing so im sorry lmao. i really did try but i simply do not have mental health nor energy. it exists, even if my exam notes for chemistry on monday sadly do not.
> 
> my main on tumblr is @wren-cant-happy and my ace blog is @acejupiter - so if you want to talk about this in general, or anything actually, feel free to message me or send asks there.


End file.
